German privacy watchdog loses Facebook appeal

Apr 24, 2013

A German privacy watchdog has failed in its bid to stop Facebook from forcing users to register with their real names.

Schleswig-Holstein state's data protection office had argued that the ban on fake names breaches German privacy laws and European rules designed to protect free speech online.

But a state appeals court has confirmed a lower tribunal's ruling that German privacy laws don't apply to Facebook because the social networking site has its European headquarters in Ireland, where privacy rules are less stringent.

Data protection Commissioner Thilo Weichert said in a statement Wednesday that he would accept the ruling, but urged lawmakers to consider changing legislation to harmonize privacy laws across the European Union.

(AP)  A German data protection official called Wednesday for social networking site Facebook to delete biometric profiles of people stored without their explicit consent, saying they breach European privacy rules.

(AP) -- Facebook is updating its data use policy in an attempt to give users more clarity on how the information they share is used by the company. The move comes a week ahead of its expected initial public offering of stock.

At the end of 2014, Facebook reported 1.39 billion monthly active users. In the meantime, 500 million tweets were sent each day on Twitter. Indeed, social networks have come to dominate aspects of our lives. ...

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